A senior Hamas official said Wednesday that Israel had begun back channel negotiations in order to return the bodies of two IDF soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed in last year's Gaza Operation, the Turkish Anatolia News Agency reported. The Hamas source claimed that a European mediator contacted Hamas and inquired about the status of the bodies. "The European mediator sent a message from the government of Israel, who wants to open a channel of communication to bring back the bodies of its soldiers being held by Hamas since the last war in Gaza," the official said. The source added that Hamas refuses to discuss this issue until Israel releases all the detainees who were released as part of the Gilad Schalit deal, and were subsequently rearrested last summer after the IDF conducted a sweep after the abduction of three Israeli teens in the West Bank. St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul, 20, who was unaccounted for after an attack on his armored personnel carrier in Gaza which killed six other soldiers, was declared dead by the IDF's chief rabbi last summer. Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, from the Givati Brigade's Reconnaissance Company, was killed in the Battle of Rafah on August 1, 2014. Both Goldin and Shaul's bodies have not been returned. "It is obvious to us that Oron's body is being held by Hamas, and we are doing everything we can to return it," said Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon last year. Senior Hamas official Halil al-Hayeh had previously said of reports that IDF soldiers were captive in the hands of Hamas that, "we will not give any information on the matter." He added that "in the Kassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, they have the ability to free all of the [Palestinian] prisoners." During Operation Protective Edge, the last instance of fighting in Gaza, the Kassam Brigades announced that they had captured IDF soldier Oron Shaul. Hamas officials have neither confirmed nor denied publicly the claims that they are holding the bodies.
